17 YEARS!

17 Years!

Just typing that number makes me feel VERY old!  Last night, my high school sweetheart and I celebrated the SEVENTEENTH anniversary of our first date!

SEVEN-TEENTH!  That’s just CRAZY!!!

It was our Junior year, we were both 16, and that cute boy with the great arms, Brad, asked me to go with him to the Robert E. Lee Homecoming Dance on October 8, 1994.  Here’s our little souvenir from the dance, or maybe it was our ticket.  I can’t remember…it’s been SEVENTEEN years, and I’ve slept a little.

Brad was “supposed” to be setting me up with one of his friends.  (Chad, I’m not sure if Brad ever talked to you, but if he did, thanks for not being interested.)  I was “supposed” to be rekindling Brad’s flame with his ex-girlfriend and a sweet friend of mine, Brooke.  Let’s just say Brad and I spent a LOT of time on the phone talking about how we were going to talk to Chad and Brooke, and I’m not sure how much talking either of us were actually doing with Chad or Brooke.

Brad asked me to Homecoming, and I was more than thrilled!  The night of the dance I nervously got ready, rolling my (then straight) hair with hot rollers, making sure that no hair was out of place, and spraying my “wispy” bangs so that they would be perfectly curled and spaced.

I was 30 minutes late as he waited downstairs with my crazy family.  He should have hit the door running right then, because I’m still running late and my family is still crazy.  (I love you, family!)

We left my house, met another couple (Scott and Sarah) to take pics and then headed to the restaurant.

Allow me to mention just a few things about this great picture…

1. This is the ONLY picture we can find from before the dance.  I’m sitting on his knee.  It’s a very awkward pose, and I’m not sure what we were thinking.
2. That large thing on my shoulder is called a MUM.  That’s what Texas girls (maybe just EAST Texas girls) wear at Homecoming.  They are large, heavy, and the more obnoxious, the better!  Brad’s mom made my mum, and I loved it!
3. Somewhere under that mum I have on a black dress, and I wish you could see it better.  You’ll know why in a second.
4. Brad is wearing a garter on his arm.  That’s what guys wear to Homecoming.
5. What?  You didn’t notice the garter because of Brad’s sweater vest?  Yes, he is sporting a fine American Flag sweater vest and tie!  I thought he was pretty handsome!
6. The sweater vest was hysterical to some of our dear friends in college, and the Baylor Kappa Sigma’s used it in pledging.
7. The sweater vest is lost and gone forever…thanks to the Kappa Sig pledges.
8. The black dress is not. 
9. Yes, I do still own that dress…17 years later!  Not because I plan on wearing it, but because I wore it on our first date, and I wanted to save it.  I never dreamed I would be able to squeeze into it at 5 1/2 months pregnant, and I do mean SQUEEZE into it.  I put it on as a joke.  Don’t worry, I didn’t wear it to dinner last night!

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Brad and I spent about 5 minutes last night trying to think of where we ate that Homecoming night.  We can’t remember.  We must have been in a group, because the picture from the dance is with 4 other friends, not Scott and Sarah.  Here’s the pic from the dance.  These guys are still some of our dear friends, and we love all of their spouses.  Please don’t kill me for posting this pic, Jenni, Kyle, Sam, and Robert!

Last night Brad and I ate dinner, then we ran to Olive Garden to pick up our all time most favorite dessert, Black Tie Cheesecake.  We took our dessert to a restaurant that was closed for the evening to eat on their porch.  We were the only people there, and we sat and ate, talked, and looked up old Garth Brooks songs, like the one we danced to on that wonderful night back in ’94.  We even had a little dance before we left.

I tried to convince him to take me to the REL Homecoming dance that was going on last night.  I was willing to crash their party and ask them to throw on a Garth song just for us…so we could dance and he could twirl me around again just like he did on that special night.  He wasn’t interested in crashing REL Homecoming ’11, because we had our own private dance party going on.

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I know that I am a VERY blessed woman!  I honestly do love this man more than I did yesterday!  I love him more than I did last year, and I love him so much more than I ever knew I would on that first date back on October 8, 1994.  The Lord has given me a true gift, and I realize how blessed I am to have a man like Brad!  He is truly the love of my life!

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ILYMED, babe! (and I always will!)

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⁵ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’ ⁶ So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

-Matthew19:5-6

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¹⁶ His mouth is sweetness itself;
he is altogether lovely.
This is my lover, this my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem.

Song of Solomon 5:16

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